Child Support Payment App SupportPay Announces Highest Growth Rates During Pandemic, Attracts Investment from Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab Accelerator

SACREMENTO, Calif., March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SupportPay, the only co-parenting app to completely manage the process of child support payments and expenses, today announced an 82 percent spike in new users last month compared with the same period last year - a perfect snapshot of pre-pandemic vs. post-pandemic activity. SupportPay has seen a steady increase in new users since the onset of coronavirus in the US, with 50 percent year over year growth overall from March 2020 to March 2021. This growing demand for SupportPay's technology to help eliminate the financial conflict around child support and shared child expenses is matched by investor interest; Morgan Stanley recently selected SupportPay as one of just eleven startups for its Multicultural Innovation Lab, an accelerator program that invests in early stage, high growth companies led by women and multicultural entrepreneurs.

SupportPay's growing popularity seems to contradict recent reports that divorce rates are on the decline. According to founder Sheri Atwood, these reports don't paint a complete picture - overlooking the impact of coronavirus and changing landscape of modern family life.

"The courts have been backlogged for months, which means the number of divorces in the last year is likely to surge once the paperwork catches up," explained Atwood. "At the same time, divorce alone no longer captures the whole story about co-parenting in the US today. The number of births outside of marriage continues to grow, and at least one third of children live with an unmarried or never married parent.^[1] Apps like SupportPay are designed to help families navigate the complexities of co-parenting, especially the financials which can create a tremendous source of conflict for everyone."

When it comes to co-parenting, arguments around finances can turn even the most amicable split sour. The pandemic has only made this worse, with COVID related stress, unemployment, and questions about stimulus relief added into the mix. SupportPay takes the drama out of the process. The app offers a private, secure platform to share expenses, upload receipts, and request payments in under a minute while allowing parents to keep their personal financial information private, thereby eliminating the need to communicate (and argue) with your ex about money.

SupportPay is the only co-parenting app to manage the full scope of child support-related expenses. In addition to child support, spousal support, and alimony, this includes shared costs for health care, education, child care, extracurricular activities; and more. By fully automating expense tracking, payments, automatic receipt scanning, shared communications, document storage and dispute management, SupportPay also creates a certified record of all financial activity from day one. Just snap a picture of the bill or receipt, and SupportPay does the rest. 

"Morgan Stanley is committed to closing the funding gap and providing female and multicultural founders with much-needed access to investors, enabling them to grow their businesses," said Carla Harris, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley and Head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group. "We recognize that SupportPay is fulfilling an important need of streamlining financial communications and management for co-parents at an especially critical time and look forward to working with them to help further scale their business."

About SupportPay:
Over $900B is exchanged each year between parents who are raising children together but living apart. SupportPay is the first and only co-parenting app to automate and manage child support payments and expenses, so you never have to communicate - or argue - with your ex about money again. SupportPay offers a private, secure platform to share expenses, upload receipts, approve/dispute requests, and send payment reminders, while offering a complete certified record  of all documents and transactions. SupportPay is available online and on iOS and Android. In addition to its consumer app, the SupportPay Family Law Network provides court administrators, family lawyers, mediators, therapists, and others within the child support ecosystem with resources to streamline child support agreements and family court processes. Find out more at supportpay.com.

¹ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/27/about-one-third-of-u-s-children-are-living-with-an-unmarried-parent/

SOURCE SupportPay

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https://supportpay.com/